A Harmony of Difference

Los Eslim Reloaded in la Calle Gerona, La Alquitara Festival de Blues Bejar Photo @Ruben Martin

In a world that often shouts about what sets us apart, there’s something quietly radical about embracing what brings us together. In this week's Camino a Ítaca a counterdance against the demagogues threatening to deport an imaginary eight million immigrants. 
From the rhythms of Castile’s town squares and narrow streets to the rare shared silences of Spanish bars and cafés, I’ve written a reflection two ways that celebrate the beauty found in difference...and the harmony that can emerge from it. They explore how diversity doesn't dilute identity but enriches it. It is a love letter to eight million reasons we might feel at home in a place not originally our own.
They're stories of music, language, and connection...woven from life here in Spain and wherever the Blues continues to tell its story.
Click over to read the version in English in the SUR in English or the Spanish version in the HOY.

Time to Get the Lead Out

They’ve turned “woke” into a punchline — something to mock, dismiss, or roll your eyes at. Why? Because it's easier to discredit the word than reckon with what it actually means.

“Woke” was never about arguing over coffee orders or policing T-shirt colors. It wasn’t about trends, lifestyle choices, or the internet’s latest moral panic. It meant being awake. Aware. Eyes open to injustice, ears tuned to warning signals. Watching out not just for yourself, but for others. Because danger doesn’t always knock — sometimes it creeps.

And let’s be clear: this isn’t about someone else’s rights, or problems that belong to other people in far-off places. What’s coming isn’t targeted — it’s sweeping. The erosion is real, and it’s accelerating. They're not just coming for "them." They're coming for you, too.

The forgetting is deliberate. The ridicule is strategic. That’s why remembering matters.

So best listen to Huddie Ledbetter , Lead Belly, who said it plain: ‘Stay Woke.’

Because they always come in the dark, and asleep is exactly what they’re counting on.

Click over to read more in my latest article at CounterPunch.

Poolside Austerity

Piscina natural (wild swimming hole) Villasbuenas de Gata

On Benches, Boulevards, and the Beauty of Belonging

One of the things I’ve always admired about life in Spain is how public public space truly is. A square is not something to pass through—it’s something to dwell in. A bench belongs to whoever needs a rest. A park, a pool, a plaza: these are shared extensions of daily life, not fenced-off amenities with wristbands and surveillance.

And most striking of all? There’s no shame in simply being there. No sideways glances. No sense that you’re “loitering.” That concept—so ingrained in Anglo-Saxon cultures—has never taken root here. Until now, maybe.

In my latest Camino a Ítica pieces, I reflect on the creeping encroachment of privatization into Spanish public life—how the very spaces that have long defined a more open, inclusive way of living are now being reshaped by the quiet return of austerity, market logic, and the ever-watchful eye of exclusivity. Read the piece in English in SUR in English or the Spanish version in the HOY.

Because once we stop noticing the velvet ropes going up around us, it might already be too late. (PDF en castellano abajo)